Overnight cinnamon rolls (buns)

The BEST cinnamon rolls – Soft and buttery sweet rolls with swirls of brown sugar and cinnamon and topped with cream cheese icing

Close your eyes and imagine waking up to the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls coming from your kitchen. The smell is so powerful you can’t resist it. Quickly you jump out of the bed and run into the kitchen. Right there, on the counter top lays a pan of cinnamon rolls. You can hear the coffee machine brewing. You smile, taking all the aromas in. Life it’s good.

Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon buns, cinnabons – however you want to call them, are one of the best thing to wake up to. There’s nothing better than seeing my family rushing down the stairs as soon as I pull the pan full of rich, buttery, sweet, cinnamon rolls out of the oven. Their ohhs and ahhhs make my day.

Cinnamon rolls may seem a little intimidating. But it’s not and you should not be afraid. This recipe it’s totally fool-proof. I’ve made it countless time and every time the results were out of this world good.

Once you know the yeast it’s alive. The mixing and kneading process starts. Slowly add the wet ingredients (for this recipe that would be sugar, eggs and Greek yogurt) followed slowly by all-purpose flour until the dough forms a ball around the dough hook.

I said earlier that I’ve made this recipe lots of times but every time I’ve made it I used my stand-up mixer. I HIGHLY recommend using one for this recipe. You can definitely make the dough by hand to the point where all the flour it’s added but once you start adding the butter I doubt there’s a person here who can knead that fast since the mixer has to be on its highest speed for around 10 minutes.

Once the dough is made your worries are over. It’s time to leave the yeast do its job. Since it’s a rich dough, the first time will take around 2-3 hours, so don’t panic if it doesn’t double in volume in less than one hour. The second rise it’s done in the fridge over night. It will take around 6-7 hours.

A couple of times I’ve made the dough in the morning, put the dough in the fridge for the first rise (takes around 12-14 hours) took the dough out, rolled in into a rectangle, brushed with soft butter and sprinkled generous amounts of brown sugar and cinnamon, rolled it, cut into 8 buns and place it back into the fridge overnight for the second rise.

Next morning, take the pan out, leave it at room temperature while the oven it’s heated and bake until golden. Pour some frosting on top and enjoy!

The BEST cinnamon rolls - Soft and buttery sweet rolls with swirls of brown sugar and cinnamon and topped with cream cheese icing

Ingredients

Dough

1/3 cup (40 grams) all purpose flour

1 tsp dry yeast (I used Red Star Active dry yeast)

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup (50 grams) sugar

1/2 cup Greek yogurt (I used Chobani plain)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups (300 grams) all purpose flour

4 tbsp (57 grams) soft butter (mayo consistency)

Filling

2-3 tbsp room temperature butter

brown sugar (about 1/4 cup)

ground cinnamon (2-3 tbsp)

Icing

4 oz room temperature cream cheese

3 tbsp room temperature butter

1 cup powder sugar

few drops of milk

Instructions

In a mixing bowl add 1/3 cup flour, yeast and water. Stir to combine and leave at room temperature until bubbles appear and the mixture it's doubled in volume.

Add the sugar, yogurt, eggs and salt and start mixing.

With the dough hook on, on medium speed, add the 2 1/2 cups of flour. When all the flour is added the dough should form a ball around the dough hook.

Increase the mixer's speed to medium and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, waiting until the butter is incorporated before adding more.

At first the douh will look like it's falling apart, but don't panic, keep mixing slowly increasing the mixer's speed to max once all the butter it's added.

Knead for 2-3 minutes at its highest speed. Turn the mixer off and with a steady spatula or a wooden spoon scrape the sides of the bowl and the hook.

Turn the mixer back on the highest speed and knead for 2-3 more minutes. Scrape the bowl and the hook again.

Continue mixing until the dough starts to come clean from the sides of the bowl and makes a slapping sound.

At this point the dough sound be soft and elastic.

Place the dough into a buttered bowl, cover with platic wrap and let at room temperature for 2-3 hours until doubled in volume. Or you can place the dough bowl in the fridge for 12-14 hours until doubled in volume.

Once the dough is well rested, sprinkle your work area and rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough into a 10X6" rectangle.

Brush with soft butter and sprinkle with brown sugar and ground cinnamon (how much or how little it's up to you).

Roll the dough from the wide side into a log, pinching the ends.

With a piece of thread or dental floss cut the log into 8 rolls, placing them into an 11X7" baking pan lined with parchment paper.

Cover the rolls with plastic wrap and place the baking pan in the fridge for 6-7 hours overnight.

In the morning, take the baking pan out, leave it at room temperature for about 15 minutes or until the oven it' heated to 375F.

Bake the cinnamon rolls for about 27 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes and frost them.

To make the frosting, combine all the ingredients in a bowl, adding milk to reach the desired consistency.

Chocolate rolls with coffee icing – Soft buttery brioche rolls filled with chocolate and drizzled with coffee cream cheese icing. Great at breakfast time with a cup of tea/coffee or even with some cold milk

Pumpkin cinnamon rolls – shreded pumpkin added to the dough and to the filling makes these sweet soft rolls irresistible.

Who wouldn’t love waking up to one of these beauties in the morning? Whenever I have a cinnamon roll I always want to be a lady and take dainty bites but the reality is that I just rip into them because I can’t help myself.

These would be perfect for a monring meeting at work. Thanks for sharing. We’re having a party tomorrow morning – What’d You Do This Weekend? I’d love it if you would share this recipe there. http://www.tumbleweedcontessa.com/blog It goes live at midnight.

Good morning, this morning woke up to MORE snow. Just a few things, I was really surprised that this recipe did not call for sugar to be added to the proofing stage, also recipe reads makes eight, yet the instructions say cut into six. A lot of work for 6 buns, but I will assess after they are baked. Also remind all to be sure the yogurt and eggs are at room temp before adding to dough, I had a minor delay as I caught myself in time. 12 more minutes til the timer buzzes, can’t wait!!

Hi Kathy, Thanks for catching my type. The recipe yields 8 rolls not 6. As I mentioned I’ve made this recipe couple of times and used both room temperature and cold eggs and yogurt, and didn’t see a significant difference. Hope you’ll come back and tell me how yours turned out.

These buns were awesome, they were gobbled up instantly, one even got the chance to cool . I will be making these again, many times. Definetly should be made as 8 tho. Can’t wait for more of your recipes. Thanks for caring and sharing!!

Just had to tell you, I made these this morning! Well ,we LOVED them!!!!!!!! The dough is sooo soft and light, they were beyond my exceptions! Thank You so much for sharing the recipe . I will be making them again & again. Tomorrow I’m making your white bread recipe, cann’t wait to devour that baby! So happy I found your beautiful blog! Please keep up the good work.

Love the whole concept of overnight yeasted bread. When I want buns for breakfast, I don’t want to wait hours for it all morning! These look amazing. I haven’t had cinnamon rolls in ages and now I’m really craving them. My attempt at weight loss does not like you right now. 😉

Lovely work, Roxana! Would you be happy to link it in to the current Food on Friday which is collecting snacks and treats? This is the link . I do hope to see you there. There are already quite a lot of links for you to check out. Cheers

I have just made a triple batch of these for the school carnival today. I made and froze them 4 days ago, popped them in the fridge last night and baked this morning. Worked out perfectly, and what a relaxed way to prepare for the carnival! Thanks for the recipe x

Has anyone tried these using a bread machine? I saw the question about using a bread machine but I’m hoping by now someone might have used one. I’m making them tonight and I don’t have a powerful electric mixer so I’m not sure I can use it without burning up the motor. Thanks for sharing the recipe.